View full sizeThe Bacot/McCarty Foundation presented the Pascagoula River Audubon Center with a $5,000 grant earlier this month. Shown left to right are Lee Bond, Bacot/McCarty Foundation board member; Susan Lunden, chief operating officer for the National Audubon Society; and Todd Trenchard, executive director of the Bacot/McCarty Foundation. (Photo courtesy of Erin Greeson/National Audubon Society)

MOSS POINT, Mississippi -- The Pascagoula River Audubon Center in Moss Point has received a $5,000 contribution from the Bacot/McCarty Foundation to support conservation and educational programing.

Susan Lunden, chief operations officer of the National Audubon Society, received the award in Pascagoula on Feb. 5 during a visit to the Mississippi coast.

"The Bacot/McCarty Foundation is proud to partner with the Audubon Center and support the youth programs that the center affords our community," said Todd Trenchard, executive director of the foundation.

"It is important that we teach our leaders of tomorrow the importance of our local environment and this partnership will help that mission of exposing and educating them," he said.

The Pascagoula River Audubon Center's mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems within the Mississippi Gulf Coast region, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats by engaging people through education, science and public policy.

"Audubon is appreciative to Bacot/McCarty for their belief in the value of our work in Jackson County and the greater gulf coast", said Mark LaSalle, director of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center.

Jay Woods, executive director of Audubon Mississippi, said "Audubon greatly values the breadth of support for its work from public and private groups that understand our mission."

For more information about Audubon's programing, visit www.pascagoulariver.audubon.org